That observation which is called knowledge of the world will be found much more frequently to make men cunning than good.

When I first collected these authorities, I was desirous that every quotation should be useful to some other end than the illustration of a word; I therefore extracted from philosophers principles of science; from historians remarkable facts; from chymists complete processes; from divines striking exhortations; and from poets beautiful descriptions.

You cannot, by all the lecturing in the world, enable a man to make a shoe.

There is, indeed, nothing that so much seduces reason from vigilance, as the thought of passing life with an amiable woman.

Being reproached for giving to an unworthy person, Aristotle said, I did not give it to the man, but to humanity.

There is ... scarcely any species of writing of which we can tell what is its essence, and what are its constituents; every new genius produces some innovation, which, when invented and approved, subverts the rules which the practice of foregoing authors had established.

I inherited a vile melancholy from my father, which has made me mad all my life, at least not sober.